Dwarf shrub 5– 40 cm high (to 50 cm fide F.Z.), erect; stem red, branched from base with short leafy branches; branchlets puberulous with minute simple and/or stalked glandular hairs to 1 mm long, the glandular hairs sometimes (especially on Mt Elgon) with side-branches near base, glabrescent.. Leaves greygreen, dense, in whorls of 3 or 4, fleshy, narrowly ovate or narrowly lanceolate, 2– 5 mm long, 0.7– 1.2 mm wide, sulcate beneath, apex subobtuse, densely grey-puberulous with minute simple and dendritic and/or stalked glandular hairs to 1 mm long, apex with large dendritic hair, ciliate with dendritic hairs; petiole 0.3– 0.5 mm long, puberulous.. Flowers in axillary fascicles of 2– 6, these groups verticillate so forming apparent terminal verticillasters 1– 15 cm long; pedicel 0.7– 1 mm long, puberulous, with 1 bract and 2 bracteoles, these sub-verticillate, subequal, ± 2 mm long; sepals linear or narrowly elliptic, 1.5– 2.2 mm long, 0.3– 0.5 mm wide, ciliate with many hairs similar to those of stem.. Corolla pink or mauve, sub-cylindric to narrowly infundibuliform, 2.2– 3.8 mm long, the four lobes triangular to ovate, 0.3– 0.6 mm long, rounded or obtuse, glabrous and papillose.. Filaments 1.3– 2 mm long, anthers included, 0.4– 0.5 mm long, the thecae slightly divergent, the caudate tails absent or up to 0.2(– 0.5) mm long.. Ovary pubescent; style 1.3– 2 mm long, stigma slightly capitate and 0.2– 0.3 mm in diameter, included or slightly exserted.. Fruit globose or ovoid, to 2 mm, puberulous, splitting the persistent corolla at maturity.
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